M25 recycling project results in £15m waste savings

The Highways Agency has saved over £15m through recycling over 70% of waste produced during an extensive motorway widening scheme on the M25.

The Highways Agency is driving sustainability forward on England's motorways

The Agency drew up a lengthy waste and materials procurement strategy, which included finding new uses for imported waste materials and recovering what it could on-site during construction work on the project between junctions 16 and 23.

The strategy forms part of the Agency's sustainable development plan, which was published last month, and runs alongside the organisation's commitment to WRAP's Halving Waste to Landfill voluntary agreement for construction waste.

The organisation has also tackled energy efficiency strategy by switching off or removing lights along selected stretches of motorway where it is considered safe to do so. This has reduced annual electricity consumption by around 3,300,000kwh, equivalent to carbon savings of 1,800 tonnes.

In its latest initiative, the Agency is now calling on drivers not to throw items of litter out of their vehicles - it estimates it has to removed nearly a quarter of a million sacks of litter from England's motorways every year.